


Between the Endgame and the End

by wmblake



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Stephen Strange has lived through so many timelines, the time between losing the battle and the snap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 08:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19059070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wmblake/pseuds/wmblake
Summary: Stephen Strange knows his role in this game; a powerful piece, sure, but not the only game-changing one on the board. If he's to be lost and the game is to be won, he has to go before too many others are lost. And not without taking some of the other team's pieces.Stephen Strange is a rook, and the Time Stone is the queen—at least in this battle, on this board.The thing with queens is that they have to be sacrificed sometimes to save the king.





	Between the Endgame and the End

**Author's Note:**

> In chess and chess-like games, the endgame (or end game or ending) is the stage of the game when few pieces are left on the board.
> 
> The line between middlegame and endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with the quick exchange of a few pairs of pieces. The endgame, however, tends to have different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have correspondingly different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important as endgames often revolve around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank.
> 
> The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame. It can be brought to the center of the board and act as a useful attacking piece.

Tony looked to Stephen, panting, the blood on his face bright and wet. Stephen steeled himself.

“Why would you do that?”

 _Because I had to save you. Because it was the only way. Because you need to survive or else we_ will _lose. Because now I know you._

A million answers, and Stephen couldn’t give any of them to Tony.

“We’re in the endgame now,” he answered, because no apology could remedy what he’d done. The betrayal Tony likely felt. He looked away before he could see anger and hurt twist across Tony’s face.

“Are you—are you seriously making some kind of chess joke right now?” he demanded. “What happened to your oath? Protect the stone even at the cost of my life. You said—you _said_ that. You—” Tony sucked in a breath. The air hissed through his teeth.

Peter landed beside him, Drax and Mantis wrapped in webbing with him. “Mr. Stark?” he asked, his eyes wide and watery, face so young—too young for this kind of war, these kinds of tolls. “What—what happened? Where’s—where’s Thanos?” He looked around, like he expected Thanos to materialize once more to continue the fight.

“Dr. Strange elected to abandon his quest and give the stone to Thanos,” Tony replied, jaw tight, voice chilled. “Throwing half the universe away with it.”

Peter looked at Stephen, eyebrows drawn together. “What? Why? Didn’t you—but I thought—”

“Doesn’t matter what you thought, kid,” Tony said. He turned away, flicking his wrist in a dismissive wave. “Point is, all that was for nothing. We lost.” He rubbed a hand over his face and plopped onto a rock. Even with his legs spread, sitting in some facsimile of his cocky-genius style, defeat carved heavy lines in his face.

“But—” Peter scoured Stephen’s face, but he couldn’t meet Peter’s eyes as they searched for an explanation that wasn’t there. All Stephen could do was shrug. Peter’s face fell. He sat next to Tony, shoulders drooped, crestfallen. “What … what do we do now?” he asked. Voice so soft, he practically whispered. Stephen closed his eyes.

Tony stared at the horizon, keeping Peter out of even his peripheral line of sight. “I don’t know, kid,” he murmured. “Wait, I guess.”

“For what?”

Tony shook his head. “I don’t know.” He looked at the broken ship in its three separate pieces. “Flying home doesn’t seem like an option.” He scoffed. “Not like it matters much anyway …” A moment passed, and Tony flinched. “Fuck.”

Peter jolted. “What? Are you—hurt? Is something—I mean, of course you’re hurt, Thanos did, uh—but—”

“Chill, kid. It’s nothing. Just …” Tony sighed. “Pepper. She—I had just promised no more surprises. Now … well, look around.” He bit out a weak, bitter laugh. “I hopped onto the next alien ship passing through on a one-way train to Never-Coming-Back.”

“No, Mr. Stark, don’t say that. We can make it out of this. We can—we’ll get through this. Just—” Peter plastered on a smile. “We can—collect soil samples! And—I don’t know, some—atmospheric stuff? I mean, we can breathe here! On Titan! We’re on a moon of _Saturn._ How cool is that? We estimated the gravity to be like a tenth of what we experience on Earth, but our fighting hardly had to change to account for it. We’re _breathing,_ even though we thought the troposphere was somewhere between ninety-five and ninety-seven percent nitrogen, with hydrocarbon making up the rest of it! Isn’t that—”

“You don’t have to try to make me feel better,” Tony cut in, though with a small fond smile now, sad as it might be. Peter looked down at his feet. “… but it is pretty neat, huh? If I can figure out how the ship’s engine produces the speed it does, maybe I could make this into a vacation spot.” He bumped Peter’s shoulder with his own. “Build another Stark Tower. Be the first man with his name in space.”

“… spread your ego to another planet?”

“Well, this moon first, I think, but maybe someday.”

Stephen listened to them chatter with a sigh. His gaze flickered over the rubble around them. Memories of lives the others didn’t live haunted the shadows cast by the faraway sun. Averted pools of blood, corpses, tragedies that didn’t happen—or hadn’t yet, at least.

The lack of weight from where the Eye of Agamotto should have been chilled him, cold in its absence against his chest. Stephen glanced down, staring at his hands. He bit his tongue and looked away.

“… Mr. Strange?” Peter asked. Stephen started. He hadn’t noticed the two had stopped talking.

“Doctor,” he corrected half-heartedly. Peter flushed. Stephen gave him a half-smile. “Need something?”

“Uh, oh. No. Not … really? I just. Wanted to know if you were okay?” Peter stammered. “You went all … quiet.”

“Yeah, maybe it’s the guilt for giving up the stone too easily,” Tony snarked. Peter gave him a sharp look.

“Thanos was going to kill you!” he defended. Tony shook his head and looked away, muttering something under his breath.

“It’s fine, Peter,” Stephen interjected. “He’s … I know where he’s coming from, at least.”

“Doesn’t sound like you regret it,” Tony bit.

“Are you expecting me to?” Stephen asked.

“Oh, you know, considering your whole spiel earlier about how your oath to protect the stone was above everything, up to, including, and beyond our petty lives, I’d expect it to take more than just some mild threatening of my life to make you fold.”

“He would have killed you.”

“And he wouldn’t have gotten the stone!” Tony stared at Stephen, face raw and open and hurt, before a blank mask took over his expression. He shook his head again and looked away.

Peter blinked at Tony. “You don’t … you don’t really think that, do you?” he asked. Tony glanced at him, with his quiet, scared voice, and his shoulders slumped. “Right, Mr. Stark?”

“Look, kid,” Tony started. “I … this business, it’s …” He sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Strange just damned half the universe to save me. To save _my_ life, he just condemned trillions.” He shot a glare at Stephen. “It was honestly the worst decision I’ve ever witnessed.”

“You underestimate how much the universe needs you,” Stephen said, low and defeated. “I can’t and won’t apologize for it. I did say that we only won once.”

Thunder clamored.

Lightning flickered through the clouds. They all looked up, attention stolen by the sudden disruption. Peter helped Tony to his feet. Most stepped closer to the cliff’s edge, like there was something to see. Stephen stayed where he sat, counting down the moments.

“Something’s happening.” Mantis looked around, the sky rumbling, as she leaned against Quill.

She turned to dust.

Silence stifled all but their breathing.

“Quill?” Drax called attention to himself, as his body disintegrated to ash. He watched as it started in his arm. In only a few seconds, he was gone too.

Tony stared at Quill, willing him to stay. “Steady, Quill,” he said, practically a plea.

“Oh, man,” Quill complained, before he, too, was gone.

“Tony.” His voice hoarse, Stephen steadied himself. No apologies, not now. Not with so little time remaining. “There was no other way.”


End file.
